Chapter 1001: A Mother’s Strength

Si Kongxue's beauty was like a rose in full bloom, unrestrained and unapologetically radiant. She was fiery and regal. There was no denying the reason behind her fondness for those luxurious outfits that offered no practical benefit in terms of combat strength. When she wore them, her dazzling and seductive beauty was elevated to its fullest.

Li Xiaofei had encountered many stunning female celebrities back on Earth. He had even shared relationships with some that went beyond simple friendship. He had indulged in the charms of modern beauties admired by millions, experiencing their allure in every imaginable form. But none of them could compare to Si Kongxue.

"Am I beautiful?" She asked.

She was wearing a soft, vivid red knee-length dress. The plunging neckline traced the graceful curves of her body. Her snow-white skin looked as though it had been carved from celestial jade. Any more would have been excessive, any less would have been lacking. It was flawless.

Most striking of all was her cold and aloof expression. It was the proud look of a goddess gazing down from above. That air of nobility and distance instantly stirred the deepest desire for conquest in a man.

At that moment, Si Kongxue seemed to return to the way she had been when they first met in Chongque City: a proud heiress, determined to break free from her parents’ control, and willing to abandon everything for her freedom.

“Beautiful,” Li Xiaofei said with genuine admiration.

More than ten years had passed, yet time had left no traces on her. If anything, it had only deepened her charm.

“Then what are you waiting for?” She whispered, her breath as fragrant as orchids.

In that moment, she was no longer the mother who had poured her heart into raising a child in a land fraught with danger. She was a wife. She was the arrogant beauty who had once given up everything for her lover. Li Xiaofei stepped forward and embraced Si Kongxue.

A long time later, Si Kongxue stretched lazily beneath a large tree, dressed in a simple white tracksuit.

Li Xiaofei asked, “What exactly is going on with your body?”

Si Kongxue tilted her head and glanced at him. “You noticed that quickly?”

Li Xiaofei nodded. He had sensed that something wasn’t right from the very first moment he laid eyes on her. Later, when she had fallen asleep on the recliner and he had taken her wrist to examine her condition, he had confirmed something strange.

There was a force inside Si Kongxue’s body that did not belong to any human. This power was eerily similar to that of Oblivion’s. Yes, it was the very same deathly force that had annihilated countless ancient Reaper clans.

That energy, faint and insidious, had already spread like deathly vines throughout her meridians, intertwining completely with her life essence. At that moment, Si Kongxue existed in an incredibly bizarre state. It was as if she had been possessed by Oblivion. Yet at the same time, it seemed she had become one with it.

“When I was sent to the Reaper-occupied zones, there was a period where they treated me like a test subject,” Si Kongxue sighed as she began to recount the past.

After she had been delivered to Reaper territory by Eden, she had immediately attracted the full attention of the Reaper Ancestor Court. The disciples of the Ancestor of Wisdom, in particular, had carried out all sorts of strange and varied studies on both Si Kongxue and her daughter, hoping to extract the data they were so obsessed with.

Fortunately, those disciples had been fanatical scientists. All of their experiments had been centered around evolution. There had been no torment or abuse. But even so, the results had not satisfied the Ancestor Court.

Eventually, mother and daughter were sent to the Evolution Temple, the ancient homeland of a once-perfectly evolved species. The disciples of the Ancestor of Wisdom believed that the bloodline of perfect evolution lay within their bodies.

Li Xiaofei already knew this much. He had learned about it during his previous visit to the Ancestor Court. What he didn’t know was what had happened to the mother and daughter after they arrived in that world.

“At the beginning, it really was dangerous. The beasts here possessed terrifying power, and large-scale battles often broke out...

“There were several times when Anyi and I almost ended up as food for the beasts. But for some reason, every time Anyi started crying in fear, or if either of us began bleeding, the beasts would suddenly stop attacking...

“There was even a time when I was swallowed by a Flamefang Drake, only to be spat out again. Maybe what those people said was true. Perhaps there really is some strange bloodline energy within us, silently protecting us from harm. I brought Anyi with me and, after a long journey filled with countless dangers, finally found this valley.”

“Then I noticed something strange. Most of the time, no beasts roamed through this valley. Only during three days each month, at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the lunar cycle, would powerful Beast Kings enter the valley and whimper in worship before this tree.

“Later, I realized they weren’t worshipping the tree, but rather a large stone statue buried beneath it. Curious, I dug up the statue and placed it beneath the tree.

“After that, I discovered the truth. No beast dared to enter the valley and kill because of this statue’s presence. So I settled here with Anyi. I tilled the land, grew vegetables and grains, made clothes, practiced calligraphy, and taught martial arts to care for her, and to preserve her human habits...

“I knew that you would find us one day. And I wanted, when that day came, for you to see our daughter as a bright, healthy, clever, and lovely little girl—not some wild child raised among beasts who had forgotten her humanity.”

Si Kongxue spoke softly, her words flowing gently and steadily.

The process sounded simple when spoken aloud. But thinking about all the dangers she must have faced, the countless days and nights filled with despair, Li Xiaofei felt a deep ache in his heart.

Back then, Si Kongxue had merely been a pampered heiress who had never needed to lift a finger for anything. At most, all she ever wanted out of life was to escape her parents' control and fall passionately in love with someone she chose.

She had never imagined she could become someone great. She had never thought she would one day sacrifice everything for the sake of others. She never expected to be the one struggling through hardship, fleeing with a child through wilderness and peril.

She had been a beautiful yet worldly rose, longing only for sunlight and gentle rain. She was never prepared to face frost, snow, or storms. Yet when calamity struck, she accomplished what countless heroes and prodigies could not.

Like a delicate rose blossoming through cracks in stone, her resilience rivaled that of the wildest weed.

“As for the face of this statue...” Si Kongxue looked at the stone figure whose features mirrored Li Xiaofei’s, and said, “It didn’t originally look like this. It was only after I prayed to it, again and again, over time... its features gradually changed. And eventually, it came to look exactly like you.”

Li Xiaofei was stunned by her words,

Such a thing is even possible? That it could slowly, on its own, reshape itself like this?

“What did it look like at first?” he pressed.